It turns out that one of humanity's oldest professions may be even older than we thought: In a recent study of macaque monkeys in Indonesia, researchers found that male primates "paid" for sexual access to females — and that the going rate for such access dwindled as the number of available females went up.
According to the paper, "Payment for Sex in a Macaque Mating Market," published in the December issue of Animal Behavior, males in a group of about 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, traded grooming services for sex with females; researchers, who studied the monkeys for some 20 months, found that males offered their payment up-front, as a kind of pre-sex ritual. It worked. After the females were groomed by male partners, female sexual activity more than doubled, from an average of 1.5 times an hour to 3.5 times. The study also showed that the number of minutes that males spent grooming hinged on the number of females available at the time: The better a male's odds of getting lucky, the less nit-picking time the females received. Though primates have been observed trading grooming for food sharing or infant care, this is the first time this kind of exchange has been observed between male and female primates in a sexual context, says lead researcher Michael Gumert of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, demonstrating that the amount of time a male macaque "will invest in [its] partner" depends largely on how many options it has around.
We, more evolved primates, may be tempted to take a cynical view of these findings, but the study's author suggests a more favorable interpretation: The macaques' exchange of services simply illustrates a nifty system of cooperation that allows for successful mating. The basic premise, says Gumert, is called biological market theory, which follows the elementary principles of supply versus demand. When applied to the voluntary sex life of long-tailed macaques, it means that the price that one group is willing to pay for a commodity that the other group has depends on the scarcity or abundance of that commodity on the market. Scientists think female macaques may use grooming, too, to try to maintain social relationships within the group to benefit their offspring, or as a way to distract or appease males from getting aggressive after a sexual encounter. In fact, when female macaques groomed males, their services decreased sexual activity in males.
It's easy to draw parallels between the monkeys' mating dance and our own, but Gumert warns against reading too much into primate studies like this one. The paper draws no conclusions about what these observations in monkeys mean for the human world. In fact, whether and how scientists should extrapolate from primate behavior is a fairly "big debate," says Gumert. Certainly, our biology underpins much of what we do, but so does our culture and environment. Gumert asks, "Where do we draw the line?"
That inquiry is at the heart of primate studies like Gumert's. While science would do well to understand more about the long-tailed macaques' social world — especially as the animals are increasingly losing their natural habitat in Asia — Gumert says figuring out how this market concept can be applied to the social settings of other animals, including humans, will be its long-term value. In the meantime, it can at least make for some thought-provoking pillow talk.
Do Monkeys Pay for Sex?
Scientists create a beating Heart!
SCIENTISTS have created a beating heart in the laboratory in a breakthrough that could allow doctors one day to make a range of organs for transplant almost from scratch.
The procedure involved stripping all the existing cells from a dead heart so that only the protein “skeleton” that created its shape was left.
Then the skeleton was seeded with live “progenitor” cells, which multiplied and grew back over it, eventually linking together into a new organ. Such cells are involved in the formative stages of specialised types of tissue such as those found in the heart.
The research, by scientists at the University of Minnesota, has so far been done only with rats and pigs and is highly experimental. It is unlikely to be applied to humans for years.
However, Professor Doris Taylor, director of the university’s centre for cardiovascular repair, believes it could be a significant step towards creating custom-built hearts, blood vessels and other organs for people with serious illness.
The big advantage of such an approach is that organs so built would use stem cells taken from the patient so the body’s immune system would not reject them.
“The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells,” Taylor said. “It opens a door to the notion that you can make any organ - kidney, liver or pancreas. You name it and we hope we can make it.”
Taylor and her colleagues used a process called decellularisation, in which powerful chemicals strip the cells from a dead animal heart. The researchers then reseeded the remaining protein skeleton with progenitor cells taken from the hearts of newborn animals and let them grow. Taylor said that four days after seeding, the cells could be seen contracting, and after eight days the hearts started contracting.
“We took nature’s building blocks to build a new organ,” said Harald Ott, who worked with Taylor. “When we saw the first contractions we were speechless.”
The new technique was reported at the American Heart Association’s recent annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. “This is a proof of concept,” Taylor said. “Going forward, our goal is to use a patient’s stem cells to build a new heart.”
- A new system of teams of surgeons working round the clock to retrieve kidneys and hearts from dead patients will be announced by a government body this week in an attempt to increase organ transplantation by 50% within five years.
The government’s organ donation taskforce will also announce the appointment of 100 more organ transplant co-ordinators, who will persuade relatives to agree to the organs of their deceased loved ones being used for transplantation.
It is also considering whether the government should introduce laws to allow organs to be taken from patients after death unless they have specifically expressed a wish not to donate their tissues.
Gordon Brown today signals his support for the policy of "presumed consent".
Writing in a Sunday newspaper the prime minister says: "A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our current system of consent."
Sir Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, who also supports the policy, said: "We have one of the lowest rates [of organ donation] in Europe."
Can you get an ivy Education Online!
John Marker will get his MBA in July from the University of Maryland University College, part of a dual master's degree he is pursuing. He has never met a professor, has never sat in a classroom and has checked out the Adelphi campus only once, long after he had enrolled. In fact, until recently, the 28-year-old graduate student had been studying from Brussels.
John is among an extraordinarily fast-growing number of students nationwide and worldwide who are turning to online degree programs to complete or advance their educations while they work, decisions that are driven by economics as well as by a society that is increasingly mobile.
Online learning makes education accessible to virtually everyone, at any stage, on the path to achievement. Students are not bound by physical disabilities, learning disabilities, poor life choices, geographic limitations, or socioeconomic status. Online learning makes the playing field about as level as it can get. A student who is determined enough can and will succeed.
More and more schools are offering courses online. Some schools offer the opportunity for students to obtain a certificate or a degree wholly online. Faculty and institutions are recognizing that not all students fit into the 18-22 year old demographic. The Socratic method, with one teacher standing in front of a blackboard facing dozens of students, is now just one way classes are taught. Not the only way. There are mature students with life experience who have different needs and objectives. Colleges and universities are tailoring the education experience they provide to these non-traditional students.
There are as many reasons to return to school as there are for leaving. Some people voluntarily interrupt their education. They decide that upon high school graduation they are not ready for college. Others defer education out of necessity in order to join the military, raise a family, or care for a family member. Then there are those who want to take time to find out their interests, work their way up from an entry-level job, or just get life experience. Later they find that what interests them requires a degree; or that they can't be promoted to more responsibility without a degree, or that their lifestyle demands a career change and more money. All at once they have to be competitive in the job market--and in many industries that means having a degree.
India's Tata Motors to produce cars which will run on compressed air
BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.
The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.
The car features a fibreglass body and a revolutionary electrical system and is completely computer-controlled. It is powered by the expansion of compressed air, using no combustion at all, and the exhaust is entirely clean and cool enough for use in the internal air conditioning system.
Tata Motors is known for its interest in innovation and has been selling compressed gas buses since 2000. It is currently working on producing the world's cheapest car, which will be almost 100% plastic and will sell in India for about $2500.
Tata is also expanding into the world market. It acquired Korea's Daweoo in 2004 and is now the top bidder to purchase the originally British Jaguar and Land Rover lines from the United States' troubled Ford Motor Company.
4 Years old girl only speaks to Animals!
At four years old, she had never been able to say Mummy or Daddy.
Nor could Rose Willcocks tell her parents if she was hungry, tired or unwell after being left all but mute by an extremely unusual genetic condition.
But to her parents' astonishment, Rose has suddenly revealed she has a great deal to say for herself - but only to animals.
She began talking to cows during a stay at a farm which was part of her therapy. Her parents now say she turns into a chatterbox as soon as she is in the company of animals.
Her mother, Esme, 37, who has nicknamed her daughter Miss Dolittle after the fictional doctor who could talk to animals, said: "She began to vocalise with the cows. We had never heard Rose vocalise before and we were overjoyed."
Rose has a chromosome defect which has left her with a floppy voicebox and windpipe. She also has learning difficulties and autism.
"We went to see the cows," Mrs Willcocks said. "Suddenly, Rose perked up. I did a double-take as I struggled to take in what I was hearing. She wasn't actually saying words but there were no two ways about it - she was talking to a cow."
"There was something about animals that made Rosie connect. We could barely get her to make eye contact or moan or groan but here she was, chatting like an old friend to the cows and horses."
"Her affinity with animals amazes everyone. She changes from an introvert into a chatterbox." The family are planning to take Rose to the U.S. for therapy, involving swimming with dolphins, in the hope she will continue improving.
Her mother said: "If we can move her on just a fraction further then it will have all been worthwhile."